R.A. Gudino - Aspiring Writer

Monday, January 16, 2012

First Preschool Visit

Raccoon has been asking to go to Gymboree for the last few weeks (we stopped going around 4 months ago), so I thought that he might like some playtime at a drop-in preschool. Where I live, all the children one year old and up are pretty much in daycare/preschool, so the kids at Gymboree were younger than Raccoon and it wasn't a good fit anymore. It's very hard to find anyone for a playdate, even with our trampoline (which is fabulous in case you were wondering).

Wow, was that visit a wake-up call or what! Structured activities for the 2-3 year olds in 15 minute increments, so basically they are marched from one thing to the next. Raccoon is not intentionally noncompliant (most of the time), but he is either not interested in something at all, or he's 100% invested and will not stop, no matter what. He is not a 15 min-structured-activity kind of guy. Either he'd wander off and get into trouble, or have a meltdown when he's not ready to be done yet, but more of the first than the second. With a 11:1 child/teacher ratio, he would have plenty of opportunity for his curiosity/stubborness to get him into trouble. He also does not like people telling him what to do; he likes to make up his own mind in his own good time. And as it turns out, the place we visited was not of the drop-in type at all. I'm not even sure those exist here. As I've mentioned before, Raccoon is not a routine-liking child, so MWF for even two hours would be impossible to stick with for long.